The present invention relates to a high-performance and fast (small f number) zoom lens which is used for a small sized photographic apparatus which utilizes an image sensor such as a CCD (charged coupled device) which is designed to be installed mainly on a digital still camera.
Small sized digital still cameras have been produced by devising systems and mechanisms which include the adoption of a single focus lens which can help reduce a dimension of the camera in a direction of an optical axis of the lens as much as possible in order to design a thin camera main body and, furthermore, the creation of a lens such as one disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-228922 in which telecentric characteristics which are inherent in image sensors such as CCD's are taken into consideration. However, the installation of zoom lenses on cameras has been in strong demand, and currently, even in the field of digital still cameras, a main stream of digital still cameras produced and sold has been shifted to those with a zoom lens.
The invention is such as to provide a small sized zoom lens or a small camera with a zoom lens.